Vol 4. Chapter 39: Sacrifices

“Oh?” Vinny and Milian walked to the corner together and cautiously poked their heads out.

Just like Milian said, there really was an open area ahead.

Past the corner was a wide clearing, like the archers’ training range that used to be stationed in Gaflei Fort. The field was dotted with straw dummies with target rings—though it was obvious this place wasn’t being used to train archers anymore.

In the very center of the spacious ground, a bonfire burned. Several Interpreters wearing deer-head ornaments sat by it, roasting food. They seemed to be talking, but they were too far away for Vinny to hear.

“As I thought. These humans with deer antlers caught my people.” Milian clenched the longbow in her hands, as if she’d heard something.

“They caught your people? Where are they being held?” Vinny asked.

“Look over there—the iron cages covered with cloth strips.” Milian motioned Vinny toward the row of pitch-black iron cages on the right side of the range. Under the starless night—clouded over completely—they looked like a line of black coffins.

Because they were covered with cloth and the light was so dim, the view inside was blocked. You couldn’t tell what—if anything—was locked up in them.

“I can smell it. It’s my people.” Milian bared her small sharp teeth. “There are elves in those cages! Those disgusting bastards were even saying that before the sacrifice, they were going to humiliate my people first. Filthy humans.”

“S-sacrifice?” Vinny’s brows knitted. “Hold on. What exactly did they say? Repeat it for me.”

“They said... if you catch elves with extremely high life energy, one is worth ten. This time they won’t need to go down the mountain every day to do that thankless dirty work—they can easily meet the sacrifice requirement. From now on, they might as well just go catch elves.” Milian repeated what the Interpreters had said.

“So it really is a sacrifice.” Vinny’s expression sank. The moment sacrifice came up, he thought of alchemy Demon Pillar Erunes. After all, Erunes was a Demon Pillar with authority over [Sacrifice].

This time... was it that thing’s handiwork again?

No way. It couldn’t be that thing again, could it?

And beyond that—did this have something to do with the fact that in ancient times, a Demon Pillar altar had existed here?

Vinny felt like things weren’t that simple. He’d seen Bronze Blood—Erunes’s followers—and the style didn’t match. And Vinny had never heard of a red eyeball symbol being part of Erunes’s sign.

“Sacrifice? You mean a ritual like what Demon Pillar believers do? These poachers came up with some new trick?” Milian’s voice was tight.

“No. It’s probably not their idea.” Vinny shook his head. “Not because they aren’t evil enough, but because their brains can’t handle that kind of high-difficulty inhuman behavior.” He glanced at Milian. “Earlier I caught one alive and got answers. Someone dressed strangely—called himself a priest—ordered them to do it.”

“A priest? Who? Priest of what?” Milian demanded.

“You’re asking me, who am I supposed to ask?” Vinny rolled his eyes at the golden-haired dumbass. “If I knew whose priest it was, would I still need to investigate?”

“Tch. I thought you were so amazing—like you already gathered all the intel.” Milian scoffed.

“You make it sound easy.” Vinny sneered back. “If it were you, your pig brain would’ve overloaded a long time ago.”

“Who are you calling pig-brained?!” Milian bristled.

“Enough.” Vinny shot her a look. “Do you want to save your people or not?”

“Do you even need to ask?” As Milian spoke, she pulled several arrows from the quiver at her waist, murmured a few lines of incantation, and blew lightly. Sparks of rune-like patterns surfaced along the shafts. She set them to the bow and drew the string tight.

[Lesser Explosive-Flame Arrow]

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Several arrows landed among the Interpreters warming themselves by the bonfire. A chain of explosions detonated instantly, swallowing every Interpreter nearby.

“You—are you kidding me? What stealth now?” Vinny stared with a deadpan face at the Interpreters, blown into chunks that rained down in small pieces. “The fighting earlier was one thing. But in a place this open, you blow magic up like that and they’ll all know someone broke in. You really are a dumbass.”

“We’re already here. What stealth?” Milian said casually. “They’re just a bunch of trash mobs anyway.” Then she added, utterly unrepentant, “And you’re the dumbass.”

“You don’t know how good they are at running.” Vinny glared at her. “Gaflei Fort was built by the Tyrelis Ancient Empire. For all you know, they found some ancient hidden tunnels for escape. You spook them like this and if I can’t finish my assessment, I’m holding you accountable!”

“You didn’t say that ahead of time.”

“You golden-haired dumbass.”

“Tch. Then you’re the blue-haired dumbass!” Milian planted her hands on her hips.

At this point, Vinny didn’t feel like arguing anymore. It wasn’t a big problem—these bandits were basically almost wiped out anyway.

Since the Interpreters guarding this place had been blown into literal human trash, Vinny didn’t need to hide anymore.

He and Milian walked up to the iron cages and tore off the cloth strips.

Under the night, pairs of glossy deer-like eyes stared out in terror. Inside the cages, they huddled together, pressed close.

By the bonfire’s light, Vinny finally saw what was inside: elf girls—smooth-skinned, pale, and beautiful—crouched in the cage, hugging each other and looking at him with fear.

Vinny fired once, shattering the lock, then pulled the cage door open.

“Come out. You’re free,” Vinny said.

But the elves only looked at each other. None of them believed him. None of them dared step out.

“Idiot.” Milian snorted. “You’re too ugly. You scared my people.”

“Get lost!” Vinny snapped back. “How do you know they’re scared? Maybe they’re too dazzled by how handsome I am!”

“Ugh!” Milian made a disgusted sound. “Stop being so vain, okay? How would any elf ever be into you?” She mocked him, then jerked her chin. “I’ll do it. You’ll scare them.”

“Tch! You have the nerve to talk about me?” Vinny kept running his mouth, but he still stepped back.

These Wood Elves probably had PTSD around humans. Letting Milian—an elf—calm them down was obviously best.

“Come out. Don’t be afraid.” Milian moved to a spot where the elves could clearly see her face, and spoke in a gentle, reassuring voice. “I’m the younger sister of the current Golden Elf Queen—elf princess Milian Chenfen. I’m here to save you.”

“Y-You’re... Your Highness the princess?” the Wood Elves exclaimed in shock.

Off to the side, Vinny clicked his tongue.

So the golden-haired idiot did know how to be gentle. Just not with him—toward him, she was a hedgehog.

“Mm.” Milian soothed them. “I came to save you. No one will hurt you. Come out, okay?”

Only after recognizing Milian as an elf princess did the Wood Elves finally dare to step out, trembling. Even then, they stayed skittish and wary of everything around them—especially Vinny, the human.

They only dared to hide close to Milian.

Vinny couldn’t do anything about it. He simply went down the line, shooting off the locks and opening the cages one after another.

All he could say was: elves grew up mostly encountering humans as poachers—or slave traffickers who specialized in capturing elves to supply certain human nobles. In their minds, humans were dangerous, vicious, and sly.

There was no helping it.

Just look at Shicodale. Humans had hurt Shicodale so badly Shicodale had lost home and family.

While Milian comforted the rescued elves, Vinny also took the chance to look them over. Among them, he spotted quite a few male elves as well.

Honestly... they really were handsome. Even Vinny had to admit it. But in terms of “handsome,” they were only evenly matched with him. And when it came to manliness—

He still won.

No wonder Shicodale could pretend to be a male elf for so long without being suspected.

“Take them back.” Vinny flicked his weapon with a casual flourish. “They probably don’t know the route down the mountain, and who knows what could happen on the way.”

“Come with me. Don’t be afraid. I’ll take you home.” Milian didn’t refuse. Most of these people had no combat ability at all—ordinary elven villagers. That was how the Interpreters had managed to capture them in the first place.

After Milian led the Wood Elf villagers away, Vinny continued forward.

Since his position was already exposed, there was no need to keep sneaking.

Vinny was about to carry Frostfang and charge ahead when he noticed something strange.

The “Interpreter fragments” that had been scattered everywhere earlier... were gone.

Vinny froze, stunned. He’d seen a lot of them a moment ago. They couldn’t have been “blown away.” And Milian definitely didn’t have the time to clean up a battlefield.

So how did those trash pieces disappear?

Vinny’s sense of wrongness sharpened. He glanced behind him—Milian had already escorted her people out completely.

Good.

Now he could stop holding back.

Vinny sprinted toward the tall battlements ahead, where lights burned. Along the way, he caught multiple sets of footsteps converging on him.

He didn’t need Milian to hear this.

He heard it himself.

“Just as Priest said—there really is a little fly that sneaked in.” They ran into each other in a wide horse yard. The leader was a tall, muscular, dark-skinned brute wearing a red deer-antler mask. He looked down at Vinny—who didn’t even reach his chest—with a meaningful expression.

Vinny studied the man. This guy’s outfit was different from the other Interpreters. He was probably the leader of this Interpreter group.

“Leader, I’m worried about the brothers at the outpost... and the elves we captured.” An Interpreter who looked like a deputy spoke quietly to the leader.

“It’s fine.” The leader sounded utterly unconcerned. “This kid clearly sneaked in alone without anyone noticing. He doesn’t have the ability to deal with this many people. Just kill him.”

“Get him,” the leader ordered.

At once, the remaining Interpreters surrounded Vinny.

“Kid, you’ve got some nerve.” The deputy swung a hooked claw in his hand, smiling viciously. “The Empire’s reward money—only matters if you live long enough to collect it, right? You might know you’re dying today... but you still don’t know how you’ll die.”

With that, the deputy snapped his arm and threw the hooked claw.

Vinny raised the long spear and blocked.

But what Vinny didn’t expect was this—

The hooked claw touched his weapon’s shaft, then tightened like a hand, clamping down and gripping it.

“Kid, you’re finished!” The deputy latched onto Vinny’s weapon. Next, his underlings would rush in and chop this blue-haired kid into mince—

Vinny didn’t panic at all.

As the Interpreters surged in, Vinny yanked the hooked claw hard toward himself.

“Huh?!” The deputy hadn’t expected Vinny—who looked thin—would have that kind of strength. He was dragged off his feet and slammed to the ground.

Vinny’s movement wasn’t affected in the slightest.

The icy crystal spear in his hands gleamed with a deep, cold light. When it swept through the air, the tip seemed to drag a glowing crescent arc behind it.

Where it passed, flesh flew, blood sprayed.

Only then did the Interpreters realize something was wrong. They instinctively tried to raise their weapons—

And got split in half, weapons and bodies together.

That spear was death given a spear’s shape. Wide, heavy swings. Killing as easy as harvesting wheat.

In no time, corpses piled up. The blood on the ground grew thicker.

Every step Vinny took forward—several more Interpreters were cut open and dropped.

The deputy was dumbfounded. He’d never seen anything this terrifying. Never met an opponent this strong.

“Leader—this, this isn’t what Priest said!” the deputy babbled. “Wasn’t it supposed to be just some overconfident little thief? How... how is this possible??”

“Hm?” The leader sounded almost amused. “What’s wrong? He is a little thief. That’s right.”

And yet, even as his subordinates were butchered without a single survivor, the leader acted like he hadn’t heard a thing. Hands clasped behind his back, tone calm—exactly as before.

“At least... to me.”

“Leader...?” The deputy finally felt the wrongness in the leader’s attitude.

“It’s not quite according to my plan... but this is fine too.” The leader spoke as if he hadn’t even noticed the deputy’s expression.

“W-What are you saying??”

“You’ve followed me for years.” The leader’s voice stayed flat. “Honestly, if I could, I’d like you to live.”

“But it’s a pity.” He continued, unhurried. “One more person means one more share of strength. And the extraordinary path... doesn’t have room for the weak.”

As the words fell, the deputy suddenly realized his chest had been pierced straight through.

Blood poured out.

The leader shook his head and watched the deputy slump down, eyes empty of any emotion—only coldness.

“So many brothers died. You should go keep them company.” He sounded almost considerate. “Help me point them a road, so they don’t say I’m not loyal.”

“Y-You...!” The deputy went limp fast. In his dying eyes, a flash of sudden understanding surfaced.

Then it went out.